Sharp
by MoonOfPluto
Summary: Enobaria and Brutus. Two career victors. Ruthless. Skilled. Strong. Heartless? Perhaps not. Even career victors have moments where their feelings come through. Drabbles. -Written for UnrequitedHate's 100 Prompts Challenge-
1. Loyalty

-Written for UnrequitedHate's 100 prompts challenge. I took the extremely hard level (you must use all of the prompts, in order. You choose the pairing). The pairing for this fic is Brutus/Enobaria. It mainly focuses on Enobaria.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games, Catching Fire or Mockingjay. I'm just a fanfiction author playing around in Suzanne Collins's universe.

Prompt One: Loyalty

The body of the District One boy fell to the ground, hands still clutching a spear. A spear that he had tried to run her through with, Enobaria reminded herself. He was the last one, the last one except for him. Hercules. Her District partner. The cannon echoed in the background, but she wasn't listening. She stared at him.

Hercules was strong and also a favourite. He was named after an ancient hero, she remembered. Enobaria had always enjoyed Greek mythology. The original Hercules had been a son of Zeus, who carried out labours to get to Olympus with his father. The only thing he had in common with her Hercules was their abnormal strength. It was odd how thoughts like that went through your head at such crucial moments.

Neither of them had moved for a few seconds, staring at each other, evaluating each other's weaknesses. Suddenly, Hercules jerked forward, sword outstretched towards her heart.

Some loyalty.

Her honed reflexes allowed her to dodge. Enobaria had no weapon, her last knife buried in the neck of the District One boy. It was pure instinct that led her to go for the throat. Years of training for this moment.

Her teeth tore through his flesh, ripping through his carotid artery. Again, she remembered her training. An opponent will fall unconscious in less than fifteen seconds if their carotid artery is severed. It is a death sentence. Those were the words of Brutus, a victor.

The blood tasted salty and metallic in her mouth. It was warm and somehow, it tasted good.

She had repaid his loyalty in kind.

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	2. Anger

Prompt Two: Anger

"That was decent. You let your guard down though. You were lucky."

Brutus's words reverberate through her being. Decent. Lucky. She wasn't lucky. She was angry. Top of twenty four is more than decent. Victor of the Hunger Games is a title that requires more than luck to earn.

"Like you could do better. I still won. And I came out less injured than you did." Enobaria's words are a challenge. Truthful though. The scar running down one side of Brutus's face was proof of that. He thought he was so amazing just because he won the Games four years ago and was the most recent District 2 victor. Apart from her.

Brutus slams her against the glass. "At least I had a weapon," he growls. "Your teeth? That's just desperate and barbaric. You weren't prepared for these Games. You're too weak."

"Stronger than everybody else!" she shouted, shoving him off her. He was never just pleased with an achievement. It was always "throw faster! More accurate! My great grandmother could throw a knife better and she's blind!"

"Not strong enough. Weaker than me."

He is so calm about this. A sharp contrast to her anger.

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-MoonOfPluto


	3. Lightning

Prompt Three: Lightning

The lightning flashes outside her window. The noise of it brings her back to the Games. There was a lot of lightning in the Games. Sitting with Hercules, eating together. First food from the cornucopia, then food that she had hunted.

She can remember every detail of Hercules's face. His tanned skin, high cheekbones. Proud eyes, in an aquamarine hue. He had thin lips. Small teeth. Mainly straight, but with one small flaw where one of his front teeth went slightly over the other. He had quite a big nose.

She remembers the salty taste of his blood. She can see him in front of her, falling. Collapsing. Dead. Cannon. She screams.

And suddenly there is a hand on her shoulder. "It's OK Enobaria. It's just me. Brutus. Flashback?"

"Yeah," she nods. "It was the lightning."

"Weather is a common cause of flashbacks," he says. "They fade with time."

"What triggered yours? Weather?" She's surprised that he isn't calling her weak. But he seemed experienced with these flashbacks. She could use his help, much as she hated to admit it.

"Lightning."

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-MoonOfPluto


	4. New

Prompt Four: New

Enobaria's teeth are itchy. It's an odd feeling because teeth don't really feel much and you can't scratch an itch on your tooth. It's very annoying. Brushing them didn't help much. Eating didn't real help either. Food, especially meat, just reminded her of tearing through Hercules's throat.

She hadn't had anything against him, really. Except that she needed to kill him to survive. They had even been friends- sometimes rivals- back at the career academy. The kill had felt good though, which was slightly disturbing. The kill shouldn't have felt good. It was tearing through another person's throat- a person she knew at that.

Enobaria sighs. She doesn't feel like a victor. All of the other victors are so strong, so sure of themselves. They know their place in the world, at the top. She doesn't feel like that though. It's like their is a war between her old self and her new self. That she had to choose either the bloodthirsty victor or the comparatively innocent tribute.

She couldn't go back though.

There was no way to return to her old self. She might as well embrace her new self.

Enobaria strokes her teeth thoughtfully.

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	5. Pain

Prompt Five: Pain

Enobaria's new teeth hurt. The surgeon who had performed the procedure on her teeth had warned her that they would hurt for the first few days. She had gone ahead with it anyway. It was the perfect way of embracing her new self, her victor self. The self that could tear out a person's throat without hesitation.

It helps her to know who she is. The pain is almost a relief. It is something familiar. All through the games, she had suffered pain. Cuts from the cornucopia bloodbath, some burns, bruises. All through training, there had always been that dull ache. Tiredness, pulled muscles, bruising from fights. Pain was normal.

As she walks out of the clinic, the people around her seem to look at her in a new light. They seem to give her a wider berth, glance at her more often and with a touch more fear. She likes it. The feeling of power is nice. It's what she volunteered for.

She sees Brutus walk by with a cocky grin and bears her new teeth at him. He looks at her in surprise, then jogs over to her.

"Nice teeth," he says. She isn't sure if he's mocking or admiring. "They look like they could inflict some pain."

"That's what I was going for."

"Yeah. Wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of you anymore." There is a new respect in his tone for her. He doesn't see her as the desperate weakling who needed to use her teeth because she had no other weapon.

No, he sees her as a weapon in her own right. Someone who can inflict pain.

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Hope you are enjoying this so far. Is you have any feedback, please leave a review. Thanks to those who have already done so. And sorry, but the longest chapter permitted by the challenge is 600 words. I'll try to get it close to that though.

-MoonOfPluto


	6. Tears

Prompt Six: Tears

Enobaria hated everything about tears. They represented weakness, that you couldn't cope with something. They showed that you couldn't control your emotions. If you cried in District 2 that gave everybody the freedom to mock you. No matter what your status. Even victors weren't immune.

The worst thing about tears was that they could come when you least expected.

They would come when lightning struck. They would come when she ate some food that she had eaten in the Games. It wasn't that she felt sad. It wasn't that she felt anything. But they would still come and she didn't know why. It was frustrating. And it was illogical and she hated it.

Especially when some kid who hadn't been through any real hardship jeered at her because of it. She wanted to kill them sometimes.

A tear dropped down her cheek at that thought as all of her arena kills came back to her.

There was the fifteen year old boy. Laughing. Pointing. Getting all of his friends to join in with him. She wanted to kill him so badly.

"Hey kids?" a voice from behind her calls.

Enobaria turns around to see Brutus. She was seeing a lot of him now because they lived so close in Victors Village. She wondered why he was even getting involved.

"Shut up and go die in a bloodbath."

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Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed and please leave some feedback in a review. Thanks to people who already have.

-MoonOfPluto


	7. Lake

Prompt Seven: Lake

The lake was calm. Every so often Enobaria threw in a stone to make ripples. The lake was one of the few places that Enobaria could be alone. Enobaria liked being alone. She liked not having to hide her emotions from anybody or put on the act of being the bloodthirsty victor now that she was outside the Games.

That wasn't to say she regretted the Games though. They had proven that she was not weak and taught her some valuable skills. And of course the money and power felt nice, even if she didn't know what to spend it on and Victors Village didn't really feel like home yet. But being a victor was stressful, which was why she liked to come out here to relax.

Technically it was illegal.

The only way to get to this lake was to trespass on Capitol land, even for only around twenty metres. No peacekeeper would punish her though. They were too afraid to. Afraid that she would rip their throats out. Enobaria laughed at the thought. Just because she was a victor didn't mean she killed for fun.

Her reflection shattered as the stone hit it.

As it came back into focus, the first thing she saw was her teeth. They've stopped hurting now. Pity. It was that dull ache that she could focus on when she got too stressed. The lake is good for relieving stress. The source of water in the arena was a river, making lakes a safe place.

She wondered if any of the other victors had found this place. It wasn't far from Victor Village. Brutus would probably like it. She should show it to him sometime. He'd been a bit nicer to her recently, supporting her with the kid, confiding with lightning. Maybe it was time she gave him something back.

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Thanks for reading and thank you to everyone who has reviewed, followed and favourited that story.

-MoonOfPluto


	8. Arrow

Prompt Eight: Arrow

This was the first time that Enobaria had been back to the training centre since she had won the Games. It was only a few weeks ago, maybe six, but it felt like much longer. To be honest with herself, she had been avoiding it since she had discovered flashbacks on the train back from the Capitol. She was afraid to come back in case she started crying in the middle of training.

But career training had taught her to face her fears, instead of running away from them. Running away was weak and Enobaria was not weak.

Surprisingly the training centre brought back no memories of the Games. Perhaps it was because it was so familiar. She had spent every day here after school, practising with knives, spears and short swords. Even though some of the weapons were exactly the same as the ones she had used in the Games, nothing was happening. It felt good to be back.

Enobaria entered the special training room for victors. Brutus was there, so was an older female victor that she didn't know. She had shown Brutus the lake last week. He was surprised, but he liked it. They had sat there for a while. Nothing was said, but it was a comfortable silence. That was one of the good things about Brutus, she didn't have to hide anything. They could fight. They could be silent. They could be friends.

She watched as his arrow impaled the spot near the centre. The heart. He looked up and noticed her. "Hey Enobaria? I wanted to show you I was better. Try and beat me." He hands her the bow and an arrow. She knows that he probably can beat her at this, but she takes the challenge anyway. Not even trying would be worse than losing.

"You're on." Her arrow hits where the crotch would be on the target. Not a kill shot, but not bad for how long she had practised with a bow and arrow for.

"You lose. See. Weaker than me."

She grabs a knife and sends it flying towards the target. Right on the heart. Kill shot. "It's faster to throw a knife than to fire an arrow," she reminds him. "And my arrow would still have hurt you. A lot."

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Hope you enjoyed, please follow, favourite or review. Thanks.

-MoonOfPluto


	9. Gold

Prompt Nine: Gold

Enobaria had been looking in the mirror at her teeth for a while now. Something was missing. They were too.. Barbaric. Like Brutus had said. They looked animal-like. It implied a certain level of barbarism herself, which Enobaria didn't like. She wanted to be seen as more human, but a human who could give in to the animal urges when she desired.

She needed something more elegant.

Plus there was the victory tour coming up in a few months and the Capitolites would hate the new look. She didn't really care what they thought, of course. They were shallow. They didn't put any effort into bettering themselves, becoming stronger. Gaining control over themselves.

No, all they cared about was clothing. But Enobaria didn't really want her stylists nagging her about her getting surgery without consulting them first and looking so animalistic. The Capitol styles weren't based on that. They would probably want her to wear that awful golden armour.

It wasn't the look of the armour that was so bad. But it was so impractical. So heavy, so hot, made just for the appearance. Enobaria hated objects like that, one of the many reasons that she didn't particularly like the Capitol or the Capitolites. The gold did suit her though. Even Brutus admitted it and he was always tight with compliments. She would have preferred one on her weapons skill.

Gold, Enobaria mused. Gold was a precious metal, one that few from even the Capitol could afford. It was easy to get as a victor though, especially as she wanted so little. Gold would show her status as wealthy, add a touch of style to the animalistic look of her teeth.

Yes, a small gold inlay around each tooth.


	10. Clear

Prompt Ten: Clear

"Brutus, why aren't things clear? I thought once I won the Games I would have everything that I wanted. And I guess I do, which is the problem. There's nothing to work for any more. Training doesn't have much meaning when you aren't allowed to use the training. Life just seems so pointless."

Brutus shrugs. Enobaria had been hoping that he would come up with some miracle idea of how to make her life exciting. Brutus never seemed to be too bored. Then again, Brutus was a mentor and had been a victor for longer than she had. Maybe he was bored and he just didn't show it.

"Well that's the goal, isn't it?" he says to her smugly. "Make things clear. Find purpose, find reason to things. The Hunger Games, for example. Why do we have the Games?"

"As a punishment from the Capitol for rebelling sixty two years ago and as an opportunity to gain power, money and glory to show that the Capitol is also merciful," Enobaria parroted off from her lessons. It was also showed on a video every reaping day. She normally zoned those out after her first reaping though.

"But why punish us?" he asks. "It was our great-grandparents who rebelled, not us. The punishment is not justice, so it is.."

"-fear," Enobaria interrupted. "It's a way to discourage future rebellion because they want to stay on top. They don't want to lose their position."

"And why do we volunteer? Why not do another rebellion? We would probably win, most of the peacekeepers are from here and the Capitol are just a bunch of pussies."

"Power. Money. Glory, like I said." Brutus gives her a look, telling her there is more to it than that. "Selfishness. We can gain more from allying with the Capitol and training to win the Games than we would be able to if we shared with the other eleven Districts. We have it good now, it's not our war."

"Correct," Brutus says. "Do you see what I mean by make things clear now? It's a new goal for you. Unless you want to become a morphling. Then you can just lose purpose and waste your days on alcohol and drugs."

Enobaria shakes her head. "Clarity. That's my new mission."


End file.
